Perhaps this is part of some kind of midlife crisis. Or perhaps it is just an exciting way to get fit and stay fit. As I was trying to build up my physical fitness without the purchase of special equipment, I chanced across some Internet information about climbing stairs (something I had been doing informally for exercise). I discovered that a race was going to take place in a few months. I had only been keeping record of climbing (number of steps climbed) for a couple of months. I didn't even add time to the record keeping until the end of September. By that time, I had a goal in mind. I wanted to enter the Willis Tower Climb (known to most of us as the Sears Tower).
I tried to work up to 100 round trips on the stairs in our own house (14 steps up). I reached that goal on 18 August 2010, just before David's birthday (and then jumped on the trampoline with Jason). 100 round trips was 1400 steps up (plus the same number down). The Willis Tower has 2109 steps up. I realized that I would have to get serious about more climbing if I wanted to get to the top.
It was not until 29 September that I got to 200 round trips on our stairs. This would be 2800 steps up (and the same number down). It took 47 minutes for the 200 round trips. I realized that I would need to trim my time in the six and a half weeks remaining before the race. I talked with Debbie about entering (since I would need to tap into her income to cover the $50 registration fee and to serve as a back-up in case I didn't get the minimum $100 in donations to the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago (a facility which achieves amazing results with its patients: accident victims and stroke victims, among others). Debbie agreed, and the project was off to a running start (well, actually a climbing start). It was mostly up hill from there (pardon the expression).
By 1 October 2010, I was down to 43 minutes for the 200 round trips. And by 6 October and following, my times ranged between 37:50 and 41 minutes. I noticed something again which had shown up in doing calisthenics. When I do a few (every other day), one day is more or less like another. But when I really push myself, there is a very noticeable difference on days following sleep loss or unhealthful eating. I was amazed at the difference between output on healthy days and other days.
I also tried to find out if it is better to take steps one at a time or two at a time. The jury is still out on that one. Most of the time I go up one step at a time. Sometimes, I go up two steps at a time. I always go down one step at a time (to avoid an accident). One time, I experimented with 100 round trips at the two steps at a time pattern. It left me much more tired and the speed was roughly the same in the end (but perhaps that came from slowing down for the last 100 round trips using one step at a time).
Perhaps all bodies are like this. Perhaps this is a "Hill trait". But I discovered that I did much better when I kept the rate constant rather than going faster part of the way (with an exception made for the mad dash at the end). It seems counter-intuitive not to run when you have the energy. But running early on leaves a definite lack of energy at the end.
By the time of the race (my first official one of any kind), I was almost at a fever pitch. I felt like a kid that had been fed three bowls of sugar and then told to sit quietly in the corner. I could hardly sit still for all of the adrenaline surging through my veins. I thought I would go crazy. I managed to sleep most of the previous night after an eventful Sabbath. That Sabbath involved going to preach at the Rockford Hispanic Church (97 miles northwest when allowing for a 40 minute tour of the town resulting from wrong information in the Conference directory, but only 85 miles back home). Then we had a church business meeting at the Elmhurst Church before coming home to eat (a bit too late).
Sunday morning, I hurriedly ate the breakfast Debbie so lovingly provided at about 06:30. Sabbath meals had been small and hurried. This meal was small and hurried too (I didn't dare miss the only train that would get me there in time for the event). I would later discover that the hurried meals would not provide sufficient energy to keep my intended speed.
I had the official goal of climbing the 103 floors or 2109 stairs in 15 minutes. This came from cold, hard logic. I was climbing 2800 stairs in 40 minutes or less on a regular basis. This included going up and down. Since the race is only up, I could divide 40 minutes by 2 and get a total of 20 minutes. But the Willis Tower is only 2109 stairs up and I was practicing with 2800 stairs up. This meant that the Willis Tower stairs were 3/4 of the practice stairs, bringing me to a total of 15 minutes. I had a backup goal of 20 minutes in mind. This was recognizing the fact that going up and down involves using different muscles. Going up is more taxing on the heart. Going down is more taxing on the knees. Going up with no change of direction would likely be more tiring (I could not know exactly to what extent this would become a factor). I realized that the top record ever was 13:09 (minutes:seconds), (in 2009).
The adrenaline built up as I drove to the train station in Westmont. All the traffic lights were red except for the one at 59th street and the ones in downtown Westmont. I had four minutes left to park the car and get to the dock. In the end, the train was another five minutes late, so it was OK. I settled down to enjoy the ride to the tower. But it was like a thousand cats were running around in my mind. I could not settle down. I finally had to recite Scripture verses in Hebrew to calm down. As I looked down from the upper deck of the train car, I noticed a young couple sitting below. The girl had the little computer chip on her running shoe already. I realized that they were probably runners in this event. I began to wonder what I was doing trying to compete with all the young people that would be in the race. We finally came to a place where the Willis Tower was visible at about 07:35. What an inspiring sight.
Upon entering, I got a volunteer to help me install the little computer chip (it seemed like it should have been easy enough, but I did not want to make a mistake in the first race). Rock music was pounding away where the hand cycles were at work. These were cycles for people without legs or people who preferred to "climb" with their arms. They had the hand cycles calibrated to give the same resistance as climbing 2109 stairs, but it would be all by hand. The pounding music and the site of hundreds of athletes with highly toned bodies and professional looking sports gear was very intimidating for a novice in his mid to late forties. One part of me wondered what I was doing here. Another part of me was nearly exploding with the desire to charge up those stairs all the way to the top.
Because the train only comes every two hours, I arrived on the first train and entered the building about 07:50. My scheduled start time was between 09:30 and 10:00. They were starting another climber about every five seconds since they needed to get about 2500 people started between 07:00 and 12:00. I took some time to shed the coat and running slacks keeping on only my tan shorts and a T-shirt. All that remained was a chance to write a little in my pocket journal, make a couple of phone calls home, and complete the process of slowly sipping the last ounces from the second water bottle.
Everything inside seemed to shout, "run up those stairs." My brain told me that if I started running, I would run out of steam after about 50 floors. My brain also told me that I should wait for my turn to run, not just to follow policy, but to let breakfast digest enough to become available. The cooked cereal and tofu would soon get to do their work. Finally, at 09:00, I entered the starting area (they had given permission for people to start up to 30 minutes early). They took a picture and let us drink from little cups of water (so as to not have partially used water bottles left to go to waste). I looked at my watch and counted three beats for each second. I knew that if I could keep a pace of 180 steps per minute, I would reach my secret goal of 13 minutes (an unlikely event). But if I slowed down a little bit, I would make my official goal of 15 minutes. I also wanted to keep an eye on the time (I needed to be clearing 8 floors per minute for the secret goal, or nearly 7 floors per minute for the official goal. When there were only about five to ten people ahead of me, I set my watch to 09:30 (it is easier to see the minutes on the left side of the watch since there is no date section to get in the way). At the moment I crossed the bar (that would start time related to the computer chip on my shoe) I pushed the little winder knob on the watch, and it went ticking merrily away on its journey to the top. It's work was "just another day in the office". Mine was unfamiliar in many ways.
There were several surprises along the way. For one thing, many of the climbers were not yielding to the ones who were passing. We were told to move to the outside edge to let the ones passing hurry up the middle. That makes sense. But tired climbers hug the inside as if their very lives depended upon it. For another thing, there is a dryness that comes to the mouth after a few floors (maybe 10 or so). Another surprise was my lack of awareness of which floor I was on. I would see numbers like "22 to 30" and wonder what that meant. Was I on floor 22 or 30? I finally managed to read a little more and discover that some kind of emergency service (I think it was an emergency phone) served multiple floors but was only located on one particular floor (indicated somewhere in the message that was hard to read at racing speeds).
I tried to hold back. I wanted to dash up the stairs. I had plenty of energy. But I knew that taking the stairs two at a time at a certain rate would bring me to a stop for air on floor 82. I would get better time by maintaining a more even pace the whole way. This paid off after a while. But the challenge was that I had no idea of where my limits were. Could I push harder? If I pushed harder, would I be forced to stop partway up? I now know that I could have pushed a little bit harder, but there was no way to know that at the time.
Also, passing people who would not move over meant going around on the outside. Just like happens with a car in traffic, there are times when you want to pass, but you are not going much faster than the other person. You could stay behind the other person. Or you could stay beside the other person. But this would waste a lot of energy since going around the outside of each turn takes more steps and more energy. As a result, I would give an extra burst of speed to get around the person. But this depleted energy much more than a constant rate would have done. It made me wonder if I should just try to sprint all the way up so I could keep the same speed (a terribly irrational thought for that kind of vertical distance).
The organizers were smart about the water. There was an unlimited supply of water bottles at the top. But on the way to the top, they had three stations with water. This was provided in small paper cups with an ounce or two of water in each. Believe it or not, it is hard to drink while working hard (even though the thirst factor is high). A bit here and there helps to keep it down rather than gulping down a bunch and sacrificing it soon thereafter. I enjoyed water at two of these stations, and bypassed the last one since I was almost there and a full supply would be waiting ahead.
Another interesting feature was the extra, non-vertical part of the journey. The climb started on very wide stairs (which also had a pretty deep toe to heel depth) winding in a clockwise direction. Later, we had to move over a couple of times as the stairwell moved closer and closer to the center of the building. It is not straight up from the bottom to the top. This makes sense when you look at the outside of the building. It looks like a series of blocks stacked on top of each other forming somewhat of a staircase design (how appropriate). At any rate, this added horizontal steps, thus throwing off my earlier calculations about climbing time. But it also provided some non-vertical steps which gave a break to the old ticker inside my chest. I did not check the heart rate on this climb, but during training, I often hit heart rates of 190 to 210 bpm (don't tell my doctor). At least I didn't get lightheaded, dizzy, or nauseated in the climb, so theoretically, the heart was OK. As the climb continued, the stairs twisted around in a counter-clockwise direction. They also got much narrower, and the toe to heel depth narrowed, making the climb steeper.
Any way, upon reaching floor 101 or 102, there is another camera (the first one being on floor 2). Even though everything inside was screaming to stop and rest, it was time to wear a happy face at the end of the race. In fact, much of the distance had been like that. During practice, I would feel like I had "hit the wall" by about 100 round trips (half of the practice). But in the Willis Tower, I felt that tired after about 25 or 30 floors. The last 70 or so floors had to come with grit, willpower, and the hand of God. It takes about as much mental strength as physical strength to keep from stopping for a rest break.
Upon coming through the door, I didn't look at my watch until I had been out a little bit. It showed about 20 minutes. I realized I was closer to my fallback time than to my official goal. I would discover later that the computer timed me (unofficially) at 19:50 (minutes:seconds) for the 103 floors. This is not too shabby. But it also was not my goal. I will hold back less if I am blessed with another climb next year. The official results are not out yet. I have read that about 2500 people were in the race. Last year, there were only about 1500 in the race. According to last years' times, I would have been between 64th and 65th out of 1500. This would have been between 7th and 8th of the 175 men 40-49 years old. But I do not know how it compares this year.
At the top, they had a row of people in wheel chairs giving the medals for completing the race. A man was there to put one over my neck. But first, I shook his hand and asked him his name (which I unfortunately forgot: it sounded like a girl's name, but I guess it worked for him). Someone took a picture and this ended up in the news (number 57 from the first two links below).
I drank another three water bottles at the top and took one with me for the road. I also took home a couple of bananas and a couple of whole grain bagels they had at the bottom. But I brought them home, thinking I would have lunch with my family after the train ride.
I really enjoyed the event. I would like to do this again, if possible.
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[There were links below, but they no longer function. The matters they describe may still be of interest.]
Mark Stephan was in the climb again this year. I saw him before the climb. I remembered him from the publicity he got last year. He climbed the 2109 stairs even though doctors had told him he would never walk again (after an accident paralyzed him). The picture shows Mark receiving the medal for completing the climb (so evidently he made it again this year). Last year, he completed the climb in 2 hours 14 minutes and 53 seconds (at age 51). When I met him, we spoke for a little bit. Among other things I told him, "You are the real winner today. I'm proud of you." His story really inspired me.
There was a picture of the disabled volunteer who gave me the medal for completing the climb. I wish I could remember his name. He told me at the time, but it slipped from my memory and I had nothing on which or with which to write it down.
The building people also took three pictures. The first one was with a backdrop which later had the Willis Tower (A.K.A. Sears Tower) added as a background. My eyes were closed. Pictures 2 and 3 are other people. Picture number 4 was near the end of the climb (about floor 102). Picture number 5 was near the beginning of the climb (about floor 2).
This year, one of the most thrilling success stories was of Michael McCarthy, a 14-year old who climbed without legs. He used one prosthesis and crutches.
Thank you again for your prayers and your interest. Have a wonderful day.
Other Willis Tower Races: